Discovering the Unknown
by Moon In Harmony
Summary: My take on a fic full of suspense and mystery. There will be some OCs so bear with me.
1. Chapter 1

A bright day begins. However, it would have been perfect had it not been punctured with an ominous feeling in the atmosphere, indicated by a deafening silence sharply contrasting the overall feel of an otherwise cheery day.

Suddenly, a scrunching of leaves by feet shattered the heavy silence. The figure did not utter a word but anyone seeing his imposing stature, coupled with the ferocious appearance of the Pokémon standing in front of the figure would cower in fear.

"Garchomp! Use Hyper Beam!" A voice echoed throughout the area.

* * *

"Hey Serena, have you finished brushing your Sylveon?" Alain asked."I actually did that a while ago, I've been training my Blaziken for the past few days." Serena replied with a confident expression on her radiant face.

"Wanna battle for an accurate gauge of your Blaziken's potential?" Alain said."Sure, I guess" said Serena.

A fierce battle ensued with no clear winner. Both trainers, wearing serious expressions, were not willing to yield any opportunities to the other.

"Alright, Charizard! Use Dragon Claw!" Alain yelled, pumped up to battle Serena.

"Come on! Show me what you got! Use Blaze Kick!" Serena shouted, ready for the battle.

As the battle continued, a huge explosion shook the ground between the two trainers.

"What was that!?" Serena exclaimed, her voice cracking with fear."I don't know what's going on... Let's check it out!  
Charizard! Take us to that place right now!" Alain said, a hint of worry in his voice.

When they arrived, the place was mysteriously pristine and unblemished, with no trace of an explosion.

"For real!?" Serena said, shock imminent in her voice."Hmm... This could be a bad omen..." said Alain, equally surprised.

Without warning, Charizard unleashed a Flamethrower on Alain and Serena.

"WHAT THE-" Alain gasped with shock."Let's get out of here, Alain! Your Charizard is not listening to you! It appears someone's controlling him!" Serena yelled.

"Ugh, O-Okay." said Alain hesitantly.

* * *

"Oh, so you're here finally... Great job Charizard! It's time to realise my plans." An unknown trainer declared with a heavy voice.

Charizard roared in approval.


	2. Chapter 2

The pair stumbled out of the woods, making their way to their yard before collapsing into a heap onto the ground.

"Alright, mind telling me what in the world happened back there?" Serena questioned Alain, unable to keep the shock out of her tone.

"Well, my Charizard never acted the way it just did before. I am just as confused as you are." came the meek reply from Alain.

"Well, if you do not know what's going on, then could it be mind control? I know that Beeheyems are able to use their psychic abilities to brainwash opponents. Could there be someone using Beeheyems to control your Charizard? Or maybe its some sort of man-made machine with mind-altering waves like in Johto..." Serena mused out loud with a finger on her chin while gazing towards the woods where they emerged from.

"Yeah... But it's just... Pointless to think about all that right now! Let's get to work!" Alain cut in while standing up abruptly.

"A positive attitude is all well and good but how will we find your Charizard?" Serena stood up as well, with some of the shock disappearing from her voice.

"Well, I say we confer with our friends and see what they have to say about this. We can think about locating Charizard after that." Alain declared with confidence.

"Alright. I guess it's always good to hear more opinions. Maybe they can help us locate Charizard too!" Serena agreed, sounding more hopeful.

As they approach the front of their house, they immediately noticed that the door was ajar.

"I got a bad feeling about this. I could have sworn I had locked the door before our practice match." Serena muttered under her breath. She immediately bolted for the door, unable to contain her discomfort.

"Hey, wait for me! Be careful!" Alain cried out after her as she swung the door open.

When Alain finally reached her, Serena just stood rooted to the spot without any movement. Alain wanted to call her out of her daze, but the sight that met his eyes within the house stole all the words he wanted to say and threw them in the breeze blowing behind them.

Two dead bodies were strewn across the living room floor, with angry red marks emblazoned on various parts of their bodies. Blood pooled below the bodies, painting the originally brown wooden planks a bright crimson. After what seemed like an eternity, Alain broke out of his daze first and stepped into the living room to check on the bodies. The state of disfigurement of the bodies was substantial but from the tattered clothes on them, Alain could identify the bodies from afar, as they were the same clothes from when he last saw them today. Yes there was no mistake, it was Serena's mother and brother, with their innards and sinews exposed to anyone unfortunate enough to lay eyes on this horrific spectacle.

Mustering all his courage to hold down his vomit, Alain finally tore his eyes from the dreadful sight and took stock of his surroundings. The entire house was a mess, with furniture and house decor being scattered haphazardly all over the place. Blood was smeared everywhere in the house, from the walls to the stairs. Alain could even spot streaks of blood staining the ceiling as well. Seeing that even the stair railings were not spared the crimson decor treatment, Alain opted not to touch the railings and slowly ascended the stairs to check on the second-floor rooms.

On the second floor, the familiar gratuitous amounts of blood greeted Alain. Averting his eyes, Alain focused on opening every door to check if the intruder/murderer is still around. Surprisingly, all the doors were open except for one. Alain decided to check all the open doors before tackling the closed one. Using a pocket mirror he carries with him all the time, he held it up in front of him while standing at the side of the doorframe at every open door to survey the room's interior for any danger before proceeding inside for a more thorough look. At Serena's father's room, Alain did the same procedure, but the blood and body in the mirror's image caused his legs to give way. As stealthily as he can, he peeked into the room and saw the all-too-familiar disfigured body wearing Serena's father's clothes in tatters. Deciding he had seen enough, Alain closed the door to the room, pocketed his mirror, and stumbled unsteadily toward the closed door room.

As he approached the door, Alain could make out weeping noises within the room. Immediately, he tried to twist the doorknob but found out that it was locked.

"Hey! I'm Alain! Whoever is in there, unlock the door!" Alain pounded on the door as he yelled.

There was a shuffling of feet within the room, and Alain heard the lock click. Wasting no time, he barged into the room, nearly knocking over the person inside. JJ's tear-stricken face greeted him as he fell back down on the floor and continued to weep.

"Who did this?!" Alain finally managed to utter out a question.

"Everyone's dead... I don't know when this happened... I was just sleeping... But when I woke up, I saw the dining room full of blood... I didn't know what to do, I feared the killer was still in the house so I locked myself in and... and.." JJ finally broke down and wailed openly.

Alain placed a comforting hand on JJ's shoulder."Don't worry... whoever did this will get his just deserts... We will smoke out the culprit!".

With that, Alain helped JJ to his feet and the two of them descended the stairs. Serena was now sitting in the dining area, noticeably avoiding the living room. Alain explained his findings and situation to her, while she digested the information calmly. Despite her silence and composure, her teary eyes and trembling lower lip betrayed her fragile state of mind. Alain noticed it and allowed her to collect her thoughts and waited for her to speak.

"How could this happen? I can't just sit quietly and let this animal get away with destroying my family. I swear I will hunt them down till the ends of the Earth and give them the slow painful death they deserve!" Serena let out a tirade of abuse on the culprit she has yet to get her hands on.

Almost as if on unfortunate timing, a shadow darkened the front door entrance.

"Hm?!" Alain reflexively tensed up and grabbed a nearby baseball bat.

"Guys, what's going on here?!" a familiar voice floated around the house.

"Slim?!" Serena gasped in shock.


	3. Chapter 3

Alain gingerly stepped out into the living room, hands clenched tightly on the baseball bat, poised to strike at any intruder who may be attempting to trick them. Slowly but surely, the familiar silhouette of Slim appeared in front of the main door. After squinting at Slim's puzzled face for a minute to ascertain his identity, Alain finally relaxed his grip on the baseball bat and led him to the dining area. Alain explained the situation as best he could to Slim's increasingly horrified expression, with his explanation interspersed with JJ's sniffling.

"With all that has taken place here, I think this is definitely not the best place to discuss our next move. I say we move to my house for further discussion." Slim finally uttered after a period of silence to digest Alain's explanation.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It would be better for me to avoid this place as much as possible." Serena muttered softly while glancing pointedly towards the living room.

As if in unanimous silent agreement, all four of them stood up and briskly walked out the main door. Serena locked the door, and Slim solemnly led the group to his house.

After Slim unlocked the door to his house, the three of them shuffled wordlessly into the living room and sat on the big sofa. Slim eyed their morose expressions and decided to lighten the mood.

"Uh, do you guys wanna have something to drink? I got soda and juice." Slim forced himself to speak cheerfully to dissolve the morose atmosphere.

"N-no thanks. I don't really want anything other than..." Serena's voice trailed off, her tear-stricken face and clenched fists betraying her true desires at the time.

"I really regret deciding to sleep at the time when all of that happened! If only I didn't…" JJ finally spoke, recovering somewhat from his crying fit.

"Well, if we want to get to the bottom of this, mere crying and regretting won't get us anywhere. Let's lay out the facts of the case and see what we can deduce." Alain took charge of the conversation to instil some hope into the group.

* * *

"Well well well, the despair that they must be feeling after all that. What wouldn't I give to see the look on their faces… Hehehe…" Prizmaniac rubbed his hands gleefully, contrasting the malevolent expression on his face.

"Yeah. Alain must have been shocked out of his mind to see his Charizard not obeying him. I wanted to see his face at that moment too. Haha!" Anwar added onto his companion's foul statements with his own brand of sadistic commentary, tinged with a dash of vindictiveness.

Suddenly, a heavy voice cuts into the conversation between the pair.

"Stop messing around like immature brats. We have just started our plans and have a lot more work to do. It would behove us to get some work done, rather than standing around like a bunch of jackasses gossiping." An unknown trainer appeared between the two of them, who scrambled to hide their identities by lifting their hoods over their heads.

"Oh, Adarsh. It's just you! We thought someone was eavesdropping on our conversation..." Anwar said with a sigh of relief, lowering his hood.

"Yeah. It probably is dangerous to talk so openly. Sorry about that." Prizmaniac spoke to Adarsh, unable to keep the relief out of his voice as well.

" This is a secure location after all. Only a few of us know this place. All things considered, we could not have asked for a better launch of our plans than what happened today. I can only hope our subsequent ideas will be executed this successfully in the future." Now it was Adarsh who could not keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Now it's time to show what we have wanted all this time!" They proclaimed in unison.


End file.
